1) How much did you pay for yours?
$25,000 before tax (it was 07 sold in Jan 08)

2) Transmission reliability
no problems with 30,000 km

3) Cold weather gas mileage
date and fuel in l/100km
3/14/2009 6.6
3/8/2009 7.4
2/22/2009 8.6
2/17/2009 7.3
1/28/2009 7.7
1/12/2009 9.3
1/2/2009 8.5

4) Summer gas mileage
date and fuel in l/100km
8/21/2009 5.5
8/16/2009 5.8
8/12/2009 6
7/29/2009 5.8
7/16/2009 5.7
6/29/2009 5.7
6/13/2009 5.7

5) Hybrid engine reliability
no problems with 30,000 km

6) Battery problems
no problems with 30,000 km
remember there is 8 year 120km warranty

7) Long term reliability any issues?
no

*) Overall reliability and anything else you can add
see my comments above.

 

Hi Starman:
Do you not block the air-flow thou your radiator in the winter? You should as it will warm you during those cold days in SK. I block the grill with foam pipe insulation tubs. Very inexpensive and it does the job. Car warms up much faster. Hal

 

I live in Toronto. Probably not as cold as Sask but quite close.

I never thought about the heater protion fo ra hybrid. So where does the heat come from if you are mainly driving in the city and the engine does not have time to warm up?

 

Engine block heater, anyone?

 

No I have not blocked the rad yet, but looking at it today I can put a piece of cardboard dirctly in front of the rad by pulling the rad cover. Its just held on with 4 push pins.

The heat comes from the gas engine but the engine doesn't heat up all that well with city driving.

I think the block heater is virtually worthless. Last winter the car was plugged in all night it got down to -38C and it barely started with the starter motor. Anytime its -20 or so it starts with the starter motor plugged in or not.

 

Blocking the rad. should make a big change in comfort ! Hal

 

hi starman

how many kms would you drive before you would fill up your civic hybrid

my petrol civic, its a smaller tank 45L i fill up at around 500-600kms, there is still fuel in the car but the indicator is pointing to the E on my dash when i fill up.

my long term average l/100km is 7.01.

 

Although both Honda and Toyota reliability is generally very good, take a look at http://avt.inl.gov/hev.shtml and notice that a number of Honda hybrids needed new cats or had transmission probs at the 90K mark. Compare that to the Toyota hybrids there.
FWIW, at the risk of being flamed, when I got my 06 Prius in January 06 (put my waiting list about 1.5 months before), there was no contest in my mind, the HCH didn't even compare (at the risk of being flamed here). The HCH had inferior overall mileage (you can see how they did in CR tests at http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/c...ient-cars-206/), I didn't like the interior, it was significantly slower than the not fast 2nd gen Prius (despite them having identical hp ratings), was smaller and has less cargo versatility. The HCH also had no price advantage and a smaller Federal tax credit besides lacking a lot of features that the Prius of the time had (smart key system, touchscreen LCD [not standard on 2010 anymore unless you get nav], Bluetooth, etc.). I won't even get in the technology/implementation gap.

With the advent of the 2010 Prius, the gap is even wider. However, the big price difference in your case makes it a tougher call. msantos on Priuschat and cleanmpg.com owns both Priuses and HCHs. See http://priuschat.com/forums/members/msantos.html.

However, most say the HCH has an edge on handling and some don't like the styling of the Prius. Even I have to admit the Prius is a funny looking car.

Cold weather mileage on any car is going to suck. I just moved (back) to WA state and lived in San Jose, CA prior to that, which doesn't get real cold compared to most of Canada. I've heard reports of mid 30s mpg for the 2nd gen Prius in very cold climates on Priuschat, but I never paid close attention.

To answer your question about where heat comes from... well, the Prius (at least the 2nd gen) and my mom's NAH have a quirk (by design) where if you turn the heat above the lowest setting and have the fan on w/a cold engine, the engine will run while idling to provide cabin heat. Turn the HVAC/fan off, engine stops. Turn it on, ICE (internal combustion engine) starts again. I can usually tolerate the cold so I just leave off until either the ICE is warmed up or I know I have to do harder acceleration that'll cause the ICE kick in. Also, on the Prius, at >=42 mph, the ICE must run to keep MG1 and MG2 within RPM limits. That might've been raised to 45 mph on the 2010.

 

I own a 2009 HCH II. I could have bought any car I wanted, the last car was an Infiniti M35x, other cars like porsche have lived in my garage. I wanted to stop paying for so much gas. I tried the HCH II and Prius 2009. The HCH II cost about $22.4 with leather and Nav. The fit and finish is as nice as the M35x in my opinion. The Nav is excellent, as is the builtin bluetooth. The drive is not an M35x or 911, but it is more than acceptable, and was much better for both local and hwy than the Priuses I have driven. The interior is much nicer than the Prius, but that's just my opinion.

For the $5000 difference, and perhaps 5-10 mpg at most (depending on conditions), you'd have to go a zillion miles for mpg to make a difference. For me the question would boil down to: Do you want an attractive sedanlike car which handles better vs an unattractive car which has much more carrying space in back.

One last point on mpg: One friend who had a prius always showed in the high 20s or low 30s for mpg, I always wondered. But I guess he drove fast around town and never on the hwy, and never serviced the car either. Another friend always gets about 50-55, but he will never go above 55 mph and I was scared driving with him (slowly in the right lane on the parkway) that we would get killed going so slowly. I think mileage varies widely, and I got mid-40s with AC on all summer, and I do not moderate my speed too much, I do not want some SUV plowing over me -- but when I did one trip when the highway was empty one day, always keeping below 65, with no AC on, I got 53 too.

Mark

 

Just a few comments:

There's been mention that the '09 has disc brakes in the back. That does not appear to be the case in Canada. I gather it's tied into the traction control, ie: rear discs are needed with TC. So, depends where you are.

Block heater is a very good idea. We had one installed, and use it almost without fail, year 'round. For typical early morning starts we have an electronic timer on the garage wall, makes it a lot easier. Any time of year 2 hours is sufficient for us (on the West Coast). Even 1 hour seems to get you to around 90% warmed up. On the prairies in dead of winter you very likely would benefit from longer: say 3~4 hours. It ticks me that Honda (and others) don't put these in as standard equipment, at least not consistantly, in all their cars. It's a big post-purchase expense, and a waste of (long life) coolant.

Radiator grill blocking is another very good idea. See MSanto's article Winter Survival Guide over at cleanmpg, for material suggestions and guidelines for how much to block at various temp's.:

http://www.cleanmpg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=17560

Actually, I'm not sure he describes materials to use in the above. I know for the '06 and the following 1~2 years, the front grill is made up of long horizontal slats. Flexi-stryrofoam tubes of pipe insulation work very well with that configuration. You want the regular 3/4" dia (that's the pipe diameter, the insulation is maybe 1.5" OD) insulating tubes. They have slits that you can push onto the grill slats, nicely filling the gaps. Black zip-ties help secure them, as needed.

But for the '09 (I think that's the year it changes) the grill is somewhat different, not sure if the insulating tube method will still work.